The Ecoist
BMW i3
Issue 31 | June 2014
Agency
serviceplan
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Alexander Schill Executive Creative Director Sacha Moser Creative Director Christian Sommer Copywriters Ulrike Schumann Dieter Boller Art Directors Julia Bochanneck Nina Martens Account Supervisors Christian Baertschi Klara Zuercher Marie Leggeri Roxana Hudson Graphic Designers Tim Hilpertshauser Furkan Fidan
Production Team
Photographer Roderick Aichinger Programmer Tobias Kreutzer Media Laurence Saas Corinne Grollmuss Public Relations Claudio Rotter Patricia Schmidt
Date
November 2013
Background
At the end of 2013, BMW launched the BMW i3, an innovative electric vehicle, which also lived up to the BMW brand promise of driving pleasure and quality.
In Switzerland, BMW wanted to generate interest and stimulate requests for test drives while at the same time presenting BMW as leaders in e-mobility and sustainability.
Idea
The core target group for the i3 was identified as LOHAS, people who pursue lifestyles of health and sustainability. These people could also be called Ecoists. Where egoists do everything in their own interests, an Ecoist also thinks of others. An Ecoist leads a consciously sustainable life but does not wish to miss out on anything, including driving pleasure.
The Ecoist was a platform for these people, an online and offline forum for renowned bloggers, photographers and journalists to express their views on design, networking and sustainability on a daily basis.
The Ecoist was advertised in print and online as well as through POS in dealerships.
Results
By April the platform had been visited 50,000 times and 2150 test drives had been booked.
Our Thoughts
What the web offers marketers is a way of slicing and dicing target audiences in such a way that you reach who you want to and don’t spend money on those who will never be interested in what you have to say. This struck us as being a bold way of getting upmarket young greens to both identify themselves and to let them know they have permission to be consumers. You don’t have to be vegan and buy from thrift shops to be environmentally aware.
We did think it was a much bigger idea than a short-term campaign
to stimulate test drives, a long-tail idea, if you like, which could have extended over three or four years. But brand owners are still averse to becoming media owners, it seems.